A HAIRDRESSING and GCSE English student has won a national creative writing competition.
After a tough couple of year Ray Jones’ confidence has been given a boost and they have fallen in love with creative writing.
The 18-year-old studies hairdressing as their vocational course and is re-taking their English GCSE alongside at Solihull College and University Centre.
Their former tutor and Competition Champion for English, Rachel Arnold, suggested they take part in a creative writing competition, organised by GCSE Resit Hub, offered to students in colleges across the country.
Ray said: “I didn’t really want to do it! I had just failed my GCSE English by four marks and was feeling pretty low.
“Rachel thought it would be a good thing to do to boost my confidence. So I gave it a go.”
The subject of the competition was Me and My Place and Ray wrote about what it meant to them, and focused on the fact that having a place was all about the people in life.
They said: “I really had to dig deep to write this as it was very personal to me.
“I did feel that writing it all down was very therapeutic, and I really wanted to get my message across that for me, my place is being surrounded by my people.”
Ray submitted the entry and was over the moon when they received an email telling them they had won, winning a £100 voucher and coming top out of nearly 200 entries.
Rachel said: “Some of our resit students are fearful of the maths and English environment and competing against students across the country is a great way of celebrating skills and success.
” Creative writing is also incredibly beneficial to wellbeing, and personal fulfilment and exploring creativity.
“I’m so happy Ray is being recognised in this way, and hopefully it will encourage him to continue creating writing.”
